Bad: Woman killed when concealed weapon discharges

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Police: Accidental Shooting Kills Woman
Witnesses Say Gun Fell From Man's Belt, Discharged
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Bad: Woman killed when concealed weapon discharges

POSTED: Monday, October 19, 2009
UPDATED: 10:38 pm EDT October 19, 2009
Map Cyber Center Shooting
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Jacksonville police said a woman was killed Monday afternoon by what appears to be the accidental discharge of a concealed firearm.

Police said a man with a concealed weapons permit went into the Allied Veterans Cyber Center Internet café on the Westside in the 5800 block of Normandy Boulevard just east of Lane Avenue.

Police said the man's gun was mishandled or dropped and discharged, striking a woman in the back. Witnesses said the gun fell from the man's belt.

Police said a woman was accidentally shot and killed at the Allied Veterans Cyber Center after a gun fell from a man's belt and discharged.
Officers said the woman in her 40s, whose name has not yet been released, died at Shands.

Police said the accidental shooting happened around 3:30 p.m.

They questioned several witnesses and the man who dropped the gun. Police said the man has not been charged.

George Clark said he was in the back of the room at the cafe when he heard what he thought was nothing more than a balloon bursting.

"We all said, 'Oh, that ain't nothing, just someone playing a game,'" Clark said. "So we got up and we heard someone say, 'Oh my God, help us, help us.'"

Clark said by the time they got near the front doors, the woman was on the floor covered in blood.

"It was shocking," he said. "It got us to the point we don't even want to come up here no more."

"There were several people in the business," JSO Lt. Larry Schmitt said. "Whether they saw it or heard it, we're still trying to sift through now. Detectives are interviewing several witnesses."

Signs of what is and isn't allowed inside the business are plastered all over the door. And according to those who go there often, there are more signs on the inside that say no firearms are allowed on the property.

While police believe it appears to have been an accidental shooting, some say even so, it won't keep them from coming back.

"Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoes continual change; but this change is not [an improvement]. For everything that is given, something is taken." Ralph Waldo Emerson